Alden Bates' Weblog

I haven't been happy with previous methods I've been using for hotlink prevention, because usually they result in a broken graphic on the other site which, depending on the browser, may not be visible.

Method 1: If a user hits a graphic with a referrer from another site, they get a 403 error and an HTML error page. Drawback: this results in a broken image on the other page.

Method 2: If a user hits a graphic with a referrer from another site, they get an HTML page which includes the actual graphic in an <img> tag, and a "hosted by tetrap.com" message. Drawbacks: results in a broken image on the other page, and the hits are recorded as traffic in my server statistics.

So I decided to try a new method: If a user hits a graphic with a referrer from another site, they get a 100x100 black and white image which looks like this*:

That allows them to see instantly what the problem is instead of giving them a broken graphic with no indication as to why, and it still registers as a 403 error in my server statistics. I've achived this by using a Perl script for my error 403 page. It detects whether the user is trying to load a web page (in which case it gives them an HTMLerror page) or a graphic (in which case it gives them the graphic shown above. I think it's nifty. :)

* Except myspace.com users, who still get tubgirl. Bwahaha.